Algesiras, attack English vessels, and bring them into port in safety, unharmed by the guns of the garrison. How far Gibraltar may serve as a convenient depôt for smuggling into Spain the manufactures of England, is a question I leave for others to determine; but some more powerful reason than that openly assigned must operate to induce the English government to retain, at an enormous expense, a military fortress in the bosom of a friendly power. The garrison usually consists of about 5000 men, and the expenses annually incurred for this post are said to exceed six millions of dollars.

An English traveller* declares, that "the incalculable advantages which the possession of it (Ceuta) would confer upon us are so evident, that Ceuta, while held by the Spaniards, must ever be an eyesore to an Englishman.”

Another English traveller, of some literary note,† who seems to entertain the rational idea that all peninsulas, islands, and the high seas, are, or should be, the property of England, not content with the display at Gibraltar of "the Herculean energies of the British nation," gravely proposes to take possession of Ceuta, and lay a tax upon all vessels entering or leaving the Mediterranean. The idea of a tax seems to form part of the very existence of an Englishman, and this proposition is highly characteristic. Not contented with taxing themselves, they wish to extend it over other nations. Travelling some years ago in Germany, with an American friend, the postillion was directed to notify us when we were about to approach the boundaryline of Hanover. After travelling a few miles, my friend exclaimed, "we are near the frontier;" and in fact, a large board over a house by the way-side, with the inscription, "Hier man muss Zoll bezahlen," or "Here toll must be paid," was the warning notice that we were about to enter the dominions of his Britannic majesty.

CHAPTER II.

Head-winds-Character of our Crew-Eastern Sailors best-Port MahonWinter-quarters-The Reputation of St. Luke as a Seaman vindicatedSirocco Sea-weed-Moliuscous Animals-Grampus-Petrels-Volcanic Island.

AFTER leaving the straits, our course was along the romantic coast of Spain, in full view of the mountains of Malaga, with the cold, gray rock of Gibraltar in the west. The one reminded us of the valiant Spaniards who expelled, after many a bloody conflict, the chivalrous and lettered Moor, while the other, with the English flag floating over it, spoke volumes of the degenerate sons of the ancient Castilian. A believer in the mythology of the ancients would, in our situation, be tempted to imagine that the whole wrath of the king of the winds was directed upon our devoted heads. It is now about a week since we spoke an English ship off Cape de Gatt, twenty days from London. We were the same number of days from New-York, and every thing seemed to promise us the shortest passage ever made, when suddenly the wind changed to the east, and we have been ever since struggling against a strong gale. The Mediterranean in this place is not more than seventy miles wide, and although it is rather annoying to find, after a hard day's struggle through the waves, that we have made little or no progress, yet even this is preferable to the horrors of a dead calm. We derive, in fact, a rueful sort of satisfaction, as either coast appears in view, from the idea that we are alternately visiting the continents of Europe and Africa. Thus we are breakfasting in Spain, will dine in Africa, and shall return again to Spain to take our supper. With all the various headlands between Cape de

C

Gatt and Palos, and on the opposite coast, we are as familiar as with the banks of the Hudson, and have toiled backwards and forwards sufficiently often for all the purposes of a hydrographical survey. We have in fact already crossed and recrossed the Mediterranean more than twenty times. Our greatest amusement is in sailing faster than any thing we fall in with, and on the ocean, where a few. ideas are sufficient to excite us, the pleasure we derive from this source is probably as great as that of the American lad whose horse passes every thing on the road.

Frequent opportunities have been afforded on this voyage to verify the cosmopolite character of an American crew. High wages and substantial fare naturally attract foreigners from every service, and the demand for sailors in our country induces commanders of vessels to take any thing in the shape of a man, without inquiring very minutely into their capabilities as seamen. Thus, in our own ship, we have not more than a dozen good sailors, while the "remainder biscuit" are arrant vagabonds, who have either never been to sea before, or else, from innate stupidity, can never learn to distinguish one rope from another. Our Babel-like crew can furnish representatives from almost every quarter of the globe. Thus we have Scotch colliers, Dutch fishermen, Spanish wreckers from the Florida shore, and English labourers, who have been kindly landed among us at the expense of their parish, and will in all probability be restored to their native land, via Constantinople. We can also muster Irishmen, Africans, Italians, Swedes, and Frenchmen, but among them all I am pleased to state that the Yankee interest prevails by an overwhelming majority.*

* On my return home I took passage in an American vessel, which formed a strong contrast with the above. The entire crew were Americans, and I never saw more thorough sailors nor better behaved men. Not an angry word, nor an unnecessary oath, was heard during the whole passage. It is but justice to state, that the crew had been shipped in Boston, and the men were all from New-England. Four of them were from the same place, Bristol, in Rhode Island.

The previous occupations of the lubberly part of the crew are quite as agreeably diversified as the nations they represent, and we accordingly have hodmen, tavern-keepers, doctors, schoolmasters, opera-singers, tailors, law-students, stocking-weavers, painters, pedlars, and even a scene-shifter from the Bowery Theatre. The histories of these poor wretches, however varied in their course, invariably terminate in the same way. According to their own declarations, none of them had ever "been the worse for liquor," yet nearly all of them had been brought on board in a beastly state of intoxication.

To while away the tedious hours, I have frequently amused myself with drawing from the old seamen the history of their checkered lives. I happened to ask one of these regular tars (a New-Yorker by-the-way), to what fortunate cause he was indebted for an enormous scar which disfigured his face and head. "I got it in the Burmese expedition against Rangoon, sir," was the prompt reply. It appeared that the poor fellow, happening to be adrift in India, became a sort of Spanish volunteer in the English service, and received a broken head for his share in that iniquitous expedition. If these poor wretches were capable of improving the many opportunities which are thrown in their way, they would be abundantly entertaining and even instructive; but in general they are as ignorant as asses upon every subject not immediately connected with their ship. I recollect asking an old seaman, who had made several voyages to Rio de Janeiro, to describe the place. "It is an elegant port, sir, to enter with any wind," replied the tar," and has the best holding-ground in the world."-" But the city," I inquired, "how is it built, what is its appearance, and what the character and manners of the inhabitants?"—" O, sir, it lies in the bight of a bay; we get our water from a capital tank close to the quay, and the people are all the same as the bloody Portuguese." This was the whole amount of the information I could ex

tract from him, and indeed comprised all his knowledge respecting one of the loveliest spots on the face of the globe.

The character, and I may add, the condition of the regular seamen has, however, much improved of late years. This happy change is owing to the fact, that captains and mates are becoming a better educated and more enlightened class. It is not more than fifty years since the commander of a merchantman was but too often an illiterate brute, who exercised his brief authority with savage barbarity, and even gloried in his ignorance. Navigation was then a great mystery, confined to but few, and the fortunate possessor imagined that an acquaintance with navigation was enough to enable him to undervalue and despise every other acquirement. Luckily, however, the race of "blow-hards" is now nearly extinct, and a superior class of well-educated and gentlemanly officers have taken their place. It is no longer considered a mark of seamanship to flog the men without cause, or to utter blasphemies upon every trivial occasion; and it is now understood, that a man may be a thorough seaman without being necessarily a blackguard. Such a revolution in the character of the officers has, of course, had a favourable influence upon that of the common sailor; and, although it would be absurd to expect that happy millennium, when the captain will issue his orders through the medium of a rose-scented billet, and the sailors perform their duties in white kid gloves, yet, in every thing that will add to their comfort, their happiness, and their moral worth, their condition will be much ameliorated.

Our perseverance against a head wind has at length brought us in sight of Cabrera, a most dreary and desolatelooking island. Our course during this day carried us within the vicinity of Majorca and Minorca, which latter place has become familiar to us in America as winterquarters for the Mediterranean squadron. Port Mahon is well suited for this purpose, being easy of access, possessing